Photo-composing type block



2 Sheets-Sheet l J. F. MURPHY PHOTOCOMPOSING TYPE BLOCK P 4\ f J 1 Nov. 29, 1949 Filed April 14, 1949 l l l I I l L I Nov. 29, 1949 J. F. MURPHY PHOTOCOMPOSING TYPE BLOCK 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 14, 1948 IN VEN TOR.

Patented Nov. 29, 1949 PHOTO-COMPOSING TYPE BLOCK Joseph F. Murphy, West Roxbury, Mass, assignor of one-half Plain, Mass.

to Edward F. Murphy, Jamaica Application April 14, 1948, Serial No. 21,072

1 Claim.. (01. 9585) This invention relates to printing and comprises a new and improved outfit or system for assembling body type in high-grade proofs for display headings, layouts, offset printing, zines, and the like.

Heretofore such proofs have been usually produced from type that must be set by hand at considerable expense and with a very limited range of style available. This is because fonts of large sized type are costly and the printers equipment does not include many varieties thereof. Moreover, body type is expensive because the proof usually requires retouching to eliminate pin holes or other blemishes where the ink has failed to produce a solid black impression. The work, moreover, requires the services of experienced type setters since such body type appears in the reverse of its impression.

The outfit of my invention overcomes all these disadvantages, increases the printers resources, reduces cost, and produces a superior proof by a photographic process. Going more into detail, my novel outfit includes a series of transparent blocks shaped to be assembled in a frame of the general character of a composing stick and each carrying an opaque negative with a transparent letter formed therein. The blocks may be readily and accurately placed in exactly their proper relation, and as assembled they are viewed directly as their impression is to be seen and not in reverse as is the case in ordinary type. The negative in each case is opaque and the individual blocks are so located in the composing stick that the negatives and the frame or stick form a light-tight mat about the transparent or cut-out letters. Having once assembled the individual blocks, the frame and letters may be placed in a photographic enlarger or other suitable apparatus and the line of the type blocks photographed directly onto sensitized paper. In this manner a proof may be formed with the letters enlarged or reducedto any desired size. For example, if the cut-out letters of the type blocks are 60 pica, they may readily be enlarged in the proof to 144 pica or to any desired size. 60 pica is a convenient size for the type blocks since it may be easily handled and readily identified, but any convenient or desired size would serve as well. The assembled type blocks in their composing stick constitutes a complete opaque screen so that the only light reaching the sensitized paper is that which passes through the transparent letters. Thus, clear solid black letters are formed in the proof which require no retouching regardless of their size. Streaks and light lines are also entirely obviated.

In addition to the advantage already discussed, it will be apparent that the transparent letters of. the type blocks may be formed in any desired. style, at little expense, and accordingly the printers resources are vastly increased since he may include in his equipment type blocks in script, caps, figs, lower case, Ben Day, reverse panel, or any other style known to the typographic art. Ben Day is a name given by printers to a shading process that gives a gray appearance to the impression of the type.

As a further and optional feature, my invention includes a frame or composing stick having superposed guideways in one of which may be set up a line of type blocks and in the other of which may be inserted a transparent slide having opaque figures or ornamentation which may be superposed over the cut-out letters and so imposed upon the proof thereof an ornamental pattern. or a series of ornamental figures such as stars, crescents, or the like.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig.. I is a plan view of the outfit in partially assembled condition,

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of. a modified outfit,

Fig. 3 is a view in perspective of one of the individual type blocks, and

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

An individual type block unit is shown in Fig. 3 inits preferred form. It comprises a hard transparent body H] which may be of Vinylite, methyl methacrylate, or any other suitable transparent plastic product and is herein shown as made up of two stiff component plies united by cement or fusing with an opaque paper-thin negative H interposed between them. The negative H is coextensive with and defines the effective portion of the type block and" as showni'nFig. 2itis somewhat shorter than the overall length of the type block but of the full width thereof. In it is cut out a letter l2, herein shown as an upper case C. The block is provided along one edge with a shallow rib or tongue l3 and along the other with a corresponding groove or recess I I by which the type block may be interlocked with others in the a'ssembling operation. The letter is so designed and placed within the outline of the block as to place it properly in an assembled line. In practlce the letter may be of any desired style of font and any convenient size, for example, 6% pica.

The individual type blocks are hard and substantially inflexible and may be handled and placed in the frame as conveniently as so many metallic type blocks.

Type blocks of the type described are designed to be assembled in a frame somewhat resembling a composing stick of the general character shown in Fig. i. This comprises an outer frame i5 having a flanged window for receiving an inner frame I6, the latter being held in place by dogs or pawls H. The inner frame 16 is provided with a transverse guideway having opposed flanges l8 and corresponding in width to the length" of the individual type blocks so that the blocks may be assembled side by side, supported on the flanges l8 in flush relation with each other and with the surface of the frame 15.

In Fig, 1, five type blocks Iii are shown as positioned in the guideway. The blocks having the letters e, f and have been pushed together and interlocked with their respective ribs and grooves. In this position the negatives il form a unitary s'creen'extending to and somewhat overlapping the flanges 18 so that there is no opportunity for the passage of light either between the blocks themselves or between the blocks and the frame l6.

The right-hand end of the frame is slotted in line with the guideway of the frame I to receive a clamping slide l9, and the leftdiand end of the frame is correspondingly slotted to receive a clamping slide 20. The two slides are provided, respectively, with ribs and grooves corresponding with those of the type blocks, so that when the feed slides are pushed inwardly, the whole series of type blocks is moved. into contact with each other and a complete opaque screen is formed by the slides and the negatives of the type blocks. Any desired means, such as a friction plug 2|, may be provided for holding the clamping slides in their inner or operative positions.

In Fig. 2 the frame i is shown as provided with an inner frame having a guideway pro vided with flanges l8 for the type blocks 10, and also a superposed guideway for a supplementary slide 3|. The slide 3| is somewhat wider than the guideway beneath it so that the type blocks I0 may be placed without obstruction, and it carries a transparent sheet 32 having an desired supplementary ornamentation thereon. The sheet 32 is herein shown as covered with dots, and while these are herein shown as widely separated, they may be arranged if desired with a spacing as close as 60 or 144 to the inch. The purpose of this supplementary slide is to give a Ben Day effect to the proof or to ornament it in any other appropriate manner. The outer frame in this instance will be provided with a slot for the passage of the supplementary slide 3 i.

In usin the outfit of my invention, type blocks ID are assembled to set up the line it is desired shown as including a 4 to print. They are locked in the frame by means of the slides 20, and if they are to have additional ornamentation, the supplementary slide 3| is superposed over them. The complete assembly is then placed in a photographic enlarger or in contact photographic apparatus, and the complete line is photographed on sensitized paper upon which it can subsequently be developed and immediately incorporated in the dummy. After being once used, the whole apparatus is immediately available to set up another line of type. The outfit of my invention not only takes the place of actual printers type heretofore used, but has many advantages over the so-called phototype system wherein alphabets of printed type are enisployed which must be pasted down one by one to make a printed line. There is no opportunity for correcting such work if a mistake is once made in the selection of a letter and, moreover, the lines formed in that manner are likely to be uneven and ragged. The employ-v ment of the outfit of my invention obviates both these objections.

While the frames herein illustrated have been single guideway for the understood that two or usually be included in a frame of appropriate size for standard equipment. The individual type blocks may be made up in plies as herein shown or they may be cast as an integral piece with the opaque negative embedded therein.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail illustrative embodiments thereof, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

A type block for use in a body type assembly device, comprising two plies of transparent plastic type blocks, it will be three guideways may .material havin interposed between them an opaque paper-thin negative provided with a transparent character, the said negative extending continuously to both side edges for the full width of the block and terminating within the top and bottom edges of the block, and the said plies of plastic material being permanently and directly connected in intimate face-to-face relation beyond opposite edges of the negative and together forming a hard substantially inflexible block that may be assembled as a unit with other similar blocks, and the block having one longitudinal edge grooved to receive an interlocking portion of an adjacent block.

JOSEPH F. MURPHY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

